XPost: misc.news.internet.discuss   
   From: here@is.invalid   
      
   How malaria parasites hide from the human immune system   
      
   The parasite may turn genes on or off to allow the spleen to clean up   
   infected blood cells   
      
   Malaria parasites survive tough times by not being too clingy.   
      
   During Africa's dry season, when mosquitoes are scarce, malaria   
   parasites have a hard time spreading to new hosts. So the parasites   
   hide out in the human body by keeping the cells they infect from   
   clinging to blood vessels, researchers report October 26 in Nature   
   Medicine. This way, infected cells get removed from circulation and   
   parasite levels in the body remain low, making people less sick and   
   allowing the parasite to persist undetected.   
      
   Doctors have long observed that symptoms of malaria, a deadly   
   mosquito-borne infection, tend to wane during the dry season, which   
   runs from January to May. But the reason has been unclear.   
      
   Keeping a low profile during dry months is a successful strategy for   
   the parasite, says Martin Rono, a parasitologist at the KEMRI-Wellcome   
   Trust in Kilifi, Kenya, who was not involved in the work. Knowing how   
   malaria parasites persist without causing disease, until mosquitoes   
   return to ferry the organisms from an infected person to the next   
   victim could help efforts to control malaria during the dry season.   
      
      
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)